The Economist - USA (2020-06-27)

Topbillionaires

UnitedStates,estimatedwealth,$bn

Source:InstituteforPolicyStudies

LarryEllison

WarrenBuffett

MarkZuckerberg

BillGates

JeffBezos

0 50 150100

March 2020 June 2020

space. Virgin Galacticsigned a

deal with nasathis week to

prepare a plan for taking fee-

paying passengers to the Inter-

national Space Station. That

may take some time; the com-

pany has yet to take space

tourists on its less arduous

suborbital flights.

The pandemic has stranded

many workers at home, and

also sent millions to the un-

employment line. But that has

meant tech giants have done

well as home offices are kitted

out with equipment and peo-

ple communicate remotely.

The soaring stock of those

companies, and others, has

increased the wealth of their

bosses and, as a consequence,

America has gained nearly 30

new billionairessince March,

according to the Institute for

Policy Studies, a left-leaning

think-tank. The top five are

thought to be 26% richer col-

lectively than before covid-19.

6 The EconomistJune 27th 2020
The world this week Business

Theimfdrasticallyreducedits

outlookfortheworldecon-

omy, projectingthatit will

contractby4.9%thisyear.The

downwardrevisionwasacross

theboard;allregionswill

suffershrinkage.America’s

gdpisnowexpectedtofallby

8%,Britain’sandtheeuro

area’sbothby10.2%andJa-

pan’sby5.8%.Mostemerging

marketswillfarelittlebetter.

China,though,isforecastto

growby1%.

AndrewBailey,thegovernorof

theBankofEngland, saidthat

hedoesn’twantitsbond-

buyingprogrammetobecome

a “permanentfeature”ofthe

Britisheconomy.Ina shiftof

policyfromhispredecessor,

MarkCarney,MrBaileyindi-

catedthatit “wouldbebetterto

consideradjustingthelevelof

reservesfirst”beforeraising

interestrates.Thecentralbank

recentlyincreaseditsquantita-

tive-easingprogrammeby

£100bn($125bn).

We’ve got a little list

The Pentagon released a list of

20 companies and state-con-

trolled enterprises it believes

are owned or supported by the

Chinese army. The publication

of the list, which includes

Huawei, is mostly symbolic.

Congress required the Penta-

gon to catalogue entities with

ties to China’s armed forces in

1999, but no document had

ever been made public before.

Wirecard, a German digital-

payments company, filed for

insolvency after Markus Braun,

its chief executive, was arrest-

ed to answer allegations of

fraud. The company has ad-

mitted that €1.9bn ($2.1bn) held

on its balance-sheet probably

does not exist. In what is one of

Europe’s biggest accounting

scandals in recent years, Wire-

card acknowledged the money

was phantom after two banks

in the Philippines where it sup-

posedly had been deposited

denied having ever received it.

Bayeragreed to pay up to

$10.9bn to settle claims that its

Roundup weedkiller causes

cancer. The German drugs and

chemicals company inherited

the claims when it bought

Monsanto, Roundup’s maker,

in 2018. It might have to make

further payouts to those plain-

tiffs who are refusing to settle.

Applesaid it would start

offering desktop and laptop

computers powered by chips

designed in-house, rather than

those from Intel, its current

supplier. The chips, derived

from designs by arm, which is

based in Britain, will be similar

to those that already power its

smartphones and tablets.

Apple hopes that the ability to

run software across multiple

devices might boost sales of its

Mac computers.

Brazil’s central bank blocked

Facebook’s digital-payments

service on WhatsAppbecause

it had yet to complete its analy-

sis of the implications. Whats-

App Pay was launched in Brazil

just a week ago.

Business organisations in

America were angered by

Donald Trump’s decision to

expand the scope of restric-

tions on immigrant visasfor

workers. Mr Trump claims this

will protect American jobs. But

the head of the usChamber of

Commerce, Thomas Donohue,

warned that the measures will

reduce job creation.

gvs, an Italian maker of perso-

nal equipment to protect

against biohazards, went

public on the Milan stock

exchange, in Europe’s second-

biggest ipoof the year so far.

SoftBanksold most of its stake

in t-Mobile. The Japanese

conglomerate raised almost

$20bn by selling shares on the

stockmarket and in a private

tender, a signal to investors

that it still has financial clout

following some disastrous

investments that left it with an

$8.8bn annual loss. Mean-

while, Son Masayoshi, Soft-

Bank’s chief executive, stepped

down from the board of

Alibaba, bringing an end to the

firms’ close relationship.

Re-opening time

The British government con-

firmed that pubs, restaurants

and other services such as

hairdressers will be allowed to

reopen in England on July 4th.

Britain has lagged behind

France, Italy and other Euro-

pean countries in easing re-

strictions. Hotels have seen a

surge in bookings for July and

beyond, but if infections rise

again it will be a short-lived

break for holiday-makers.

Perhaps those looking to get

away from it all could look to